Work life balance
by huchbuch
Summary: With getting in trouble with teachers and being yelled at by his foster mother for missing curfew Billy is having trouble balancing his work as a hero and his life as a boy. As Captain Marvel, his Wisdom of Solomon urges him to ask advice from the other heroes on how they manage to have a healthy work life balance, and he discovers he isn't the only one who struggles with it.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything DC

Summary

With getting in trouble with teachers and being yelled at by his foster mother for missing curfew Billy is having trouble balancing his work as a hero and his life as a growing boy. As Captain Marvel his Wisdom of Solomon urges him to ask advice from the other heroes on how they manage to have a healthy work balance life – this causes him to conclude that it's not just him who hasn't got it all sorted out.

Story

"Billy!" His new foster mum shrieked as he crept through the front door at one in the morning.

A light turned on and he spied her standing in her pink fluffy dressing gown and slippers by the stairs. His stomach sank as he prepared himself to face another long rant on how curfews were there for a reason, what his punishment would be and how long suffering she was to wait up all these hours for a useless brat like him. It was the second one today. He was also yelled at by his P.E. teacher for being late. How was he supposed to explain away his absence when he couldn't exactly blurt out that he was away saving a family from a burning building? Instead he just had to keep quiet with his head bowed down as he got dragged to the principal's office with threats of expulsion and more bad behaviour to add to Billy, the problem child's, record.

The next day was a Saturday which meant he was free to see his friends. Most boys his age went to play some soccer in the park, but there were some perks to being a superhero.

With a yell of "SHAZAM!" in a back alley, instead of a football field he was off to the watchtower, home of the justice league.

As he mused over his troubles of balancing his hero work with life and school in the identity of Captain Marvel an idea struck him. Surely he wasn't the first hero who had these troubles; all the other heroes he knew had some kind of secret identity which gave them time to live some sort of normal life. Knowing that is the case maybe they could give him some tips.

The first person he saw when entering the watchtower was Batman. He had a laptop on the table in front of him and was typing away quickly, with a mug of coffee long gone cold beside him on the table.

As always, Batman wore his long black garb and his mask covered the majority of his face. Something about that man made him nervous. He always got self-conscious that Batman could see right through the magic that surrounded him and discover the young boy who, it seemed to him was just playing hero, surrounded by all the real life supermen and women who also walked these halls.

Captain Marvel however, unlike billy, had the courage of Achilles, so he walked up to batman and sat next to him, his red and gold suit a stark contrast to his companion's shadowed black.

Batman found Captain Marvel hard to work with. There was no doubt that he was a valued member of the justice league and that his powers rivalled superman's, but he was just so silly and childish at times. Superman could be annoyingly cheery, but Captain Marvel took it to another level - getting boyishly excited when teamed up with other heroes and by zapping things with lightning just for the pure delight of watching that terrible yet beautiful streak of power fall from the heavens.

When Marvel chatted to the other heroes he loved talking about childish TV shows and sports, yet tuned out faster than the Flash when topics of the economy came up.

He never drank alcohol, not due to some moral reason but because Quote "It's all bitter and tangy, soft drinks taste much better" end quote. While that was not a reason to find him hard to work with, it was just another peculiarity that made him so much more different than the others.

He was also one of the few heroes who showed his face. The reason this frustrated Batman was because it should make finding out his secret identity relatively easy, yet of all the heroes, Captain Marvel's identity was proving one of the hardest to figure out.

Batman was always professionally courteous to Captain Marvel. He appreciated his help, and he knew the many benefits of having heroes who have magical abilities. Despite this he was never particularly friendly with the red and gold cloaked hero, so it was a surprise to see him sit down next to him, obviously waiting for a chance to speak.

After a few minutes of silence and waiting Batman finally stopped typing and with a gruff "What?" , which was almost cordial for the dark knight, Captain Marvel asked the question that was burning on his mind.

"I have been getting into trouble in my civilian identity for running off while I do my hero work." He explained simply, "I was wondering how you deal with balancing your two identities, and if you could give me any tips?" the forever childish and bold hero asked softly.

Batman simply looked over at him for a few seconds, as if assessing how serious this question was being asked. The captain seemed to have passed whatever test Batman was looking for because he then was given his answer.

"Hero work always should come first" was the response. "Your civilian identity is often a useful recourse which can be used, but it is always the identity which gets sacrificed in this fight." Batman said in a simple matter of fact way. "You need to be prepared for that if you want to continue this work".

With that his answer seemed finished, but before he could put his fingers back on the keyboard Captain Marvel butted in with another question, "but what about Robin? You make sure that he goes to school right?"

Batman's eyes narrowed, indicating impatience but he still answered. "School for Robin is part of his training. It is something he needs to do in order to have more options in the future and he learns necessary skills for life there, no matter how much he insists that certain subjects are useless to him."

Batman then turned in his seat to face him head on, and Billy got the sneaking suspicion that Batman thought Robin put him up to asking Batman this question, after all, why would a grown man be asking about school?

"A hero who is not properly trained in all walks of life is one who will put himself and others in danger" Batman growled out harshly "And schools is a part of that training which is why Robin only accompanies me when his homework is done and when it is not a school night."

With that Batman turned and went back to typing, and glancing at the screen the Captain was not surprised to see it was work, and that he was updating the watchtower's criminal database. With that, and knowing a dismissal when he saw one Captain Marvel left him to his work and mused on the answers he was given.

Maybe he should try harder with his homework and with arriving at school on time, he thought, though he could see Robin's perspective easier than Batman's, he made a resolution to make more of an effort.

The next person he saw in the watchtower was the man of steel himself. His next target was set. Marvel walked up to Superman who was stood by the watchtower's new coffee machine trying to figure of which buttons to press to get a low calorie cappuccino with cream. Viewing the other three steaming mugs on the table he figured Superman must have gotten the short straw in a meeting and had been sent to get drinks for some of the other heroes. It was perhaps these small things that made Captain Marvel admire Superman so much. How it never even seemed to occur to him that the act of getting drinks for other heroes whose powers were so much weaker than his own could be seen as being below him.

Superman turned to him, no doubt hearing him coming before he entered the room and greeted him with a friendly smile. He felt a little silly even admitting it to himself, but he never felt unsure of asking Superman questions, though Superman was one of the few heroes whose powers could best his, yet Batman always made him feel intimidated.

Billy tossed out a generic greeting as he walked up to the man of steel, and then asked his question, "Superman, how do you manage to keep up with all the responsibilities of your secret identity when also doing hero work?"

Superman almost seemed relieved at the question as he turned away from the overly complex drinks machine.

"That's a tricky one" Superman said, his mouth turning down into a slight frown as he considered his answer. "It's not easy." He said hesitantly "And I'm sure it's a question every hero faces. I often get in trouble at work for running off on a moment's notice, but as long as I keep on top of my work my boss generally doesn't really care when I'm in the office and when I'm not. Part of the reason I chose my job is because it is a job which can help and fits well with hero work, I think you will find that lots of our colleagues are in some kind of law enforcement or news related job where they can be alerted to crimes that are happening as soon as possible. That or jobs which don't have a set office time which they have to abide by. So getting the right kind of work certainly helps."

'So the advice was 'get a job which is compatible with hero work', well, school certainly didn't fit that category,' Captain Marvel thought 'but it could be good advice for the future.'

"What about family commitments rather than work" Billy asked, thinking of his foster mum's face twisted in fury as she ranted on at him the night before, and having a strange daydream of that scene played out by Batman and Robin before being snapped out of it by the thought of Batman in pink fluffy slippers.

"I think that it is important to set aside time for family and friends" Superman said seriously. "They can often feel left out and hurt by you leaving them out, and it is especially hard when they don't know your hero identity and why you aren't around so much. People are always in trouble and there is always someone in need of saving. But even I can't do hero work all day every day. While hero work comes first, you aren't the only hero here" he said calmly gesturing around the room as if to encompass the whole of the watch tower "That is one of the reasons the justice league was made, so if one of us is hurt, or missing, or just needs time to be normal, we know there are other heroes who will step in to take care of our cities If we need them to."

Superman placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at him gently, making billy feel his real age, and said "Just tell us if there are times you need a break from hero work and just like how you come running when the league contacts you for an emergency, we will all chip in to help you and your city out."

At that their chat was over, and Captain Marvel helped Superman get the final couple of drinks and deliver them, with a growing conviction in his head that he should go and see J'onn about getting another hero on standby for his city, at least for when he was at school - getting expelled was not something the justice league would approve of after all.

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><p>Hope you enjoyed the story, please review and tell me your thoughts!<p> 


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